I would not put no clean in place without the "costly" QC and qualification procedures listed below. Depending upon the end use, you could have serious problems without it: Qualification must include SIR testing. I have made SIR testers using picoammeters (or floor ESD testers), multimeters, a homemade switchbox and a regulated power supply and running wires into a temperature/humidity chamber. (It took several tries to eliminate all the stray currents). If you have a power supply and ESD floor tester at 100 V (and an available chamber), testing cost should be the bare SIR boards made by your production supplier plus a small cost to make the test box. Outside labs will do the testing for a nominal fee. You should also have a tester such as Ionograph, Omega meter, Ion Chaser, Zero Ion... to do SPC on bare and assembled panels. They can detect out of control situations such as too much flux or dirty incoming PCBs. More testing, such as product testing at use environment, significantly reduces risk. If these are too expensive to put into place, don't use no clean. P.S. If you choose the right flux, spray fluxer and paste, you don't need nitrogen with a good design and solderable parts. ARIC PARR Sr. Manufacturing Engineer Eaton Corp 1400 S. Livernois P. O. Box 5020 Rochester Hills, Mi 48308-5020 [log in to unmask] 248 608 7780 Fax: 248 656 2242 ------------- Original Text From: C=US/A=INTERNET/DDA=ID/TechNet(a)IPC.ORG, on 7/25/98 4:47 AM: To: Aric Parr@01635@Lectron_RH, EatonWHQ@CorpMail@WHQCleveOH[C=US/A=INTERNET/DDA=ID/TechNet(a)IPC.ORG] Dear sir, Please try the Qualitek solder paste #670S1 for SMT, it is the low flux residue solder paste. I have experience with it, it pass contaminant test perform IPC standard by our cutomer. For PTH is Alpha metal, Telecore plus1.2% flux core, 0.5% dia, this one has passed the test also. For noclean flux removing please try Alpha metal # EC-7M. Best regards, Noppadol S. At 15:00 24/7/98 -0700, you wrote: >Hello. > > I am needing a way to determine if flux residue from "no - clean" flux >is a problem with reliablity on fr4 pcbas. IPC standards are unclear and >suggest test methods that are excessively costly for me. Is there any >products that may help me determine the contamination level (cheap) or >do you have "safe" cleaners ?. > >Thanks > >Cheyenne Noda >[log in to unmask] > >################################################################ >TechNet E-Mail Forum provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c >################################################################ >To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the body: >To subscribe: SUBSCRIBE TechNet <your full name> >To unsubscribe: SIGNOFF TechNet >################################################################ >Please visit IPC's web site (http://www.ipc.org) "On-Line Services" section for additional information. >For technical support contact Hugo Scaramuzza at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.312 >################################################################ > ################################################################ TechNet E-Mail Forum provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c ################################################################ To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the body: To subscribe: SUBSCRIBE TechNet <your full name> To unsubscribe: SIGNOFF TechNet ################################################################ Please visit IPC's web site (http://www.ipc.org) "On-Line Services" section for additional information. For technical support contact Hugo Scaramuzza at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.312 ################################################################ ################################################################ TechNet E-Mail Forum provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c ################################################################ To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the body: To subscribe: SUBSCRIBE TechNet <your full name> To unsubscribe: SIGNOFF TechNet ################################################################ Please visit IPC's web site (http://www.ipc.org) "On-Line Services" section for additional information. For technical support contact Hugo Scaramuzza at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.312 ################################################################